Hi, It’s Me Again
Roz Chast, Liana Finck, Asher Perlman, Joe Dator, Dave Ostow, Tom Toro, Kendra Allenby, Jason Chatfield, Hilary F. Campbell, Amy Kurzweil, Will Santino, Ivan Ehlers, Colin Tom and Akeem Roberts!
Asher Perlman here! Longtime contributor, first time editor.
The kind folks over at ToonStack HQ graciously offered to let me take over this week’s newsletter to celebrate the upcoming release of my new cartoon collection, Hi, It’s Me Again.
It’s a follow-up to my debut, last year’s national bestseller, Well, This Is Me. I worked really hard on it and I think you’ll enjoy it. That being said, if you don’t end up liking it, remember that we learn more in life from hardship than pleasure, so, really, it’s win-win.
Still not convinced? Here are some nice things celebrities have said:
“Asher Perlman can do in one frame what I need two hours and seventeen minutes to accomplish half as well! Insightful, human, and hilarious.”
- Judd Apatow
“The profane amount of whimsy is only matched by the obscene level of hilarity. PERLMAN IS MEDDLING IN GOD’S DOMAIN.”
- Patton Oswalt
“Very funny, keenly attuned to the inherent strangeness of existence.”
- Stephen Colbert
“Asher Perlman’s cartoons are the kind of funny that make you question what it is to be a person, but in a good way.”
- Ben Stiller
“In my fantasy version of myself, I see things that no one else can see. True things. I am brief and winning in the way I point them out and when I do this, I bring not only a smile, but can change the way another person looks at the world. Apparently, in my fantasy version of myself, I am Asher Perlman.”
- John Dickerson
"I find myself wanting to live in the worlds Asher creates, until I realize they're not too far from the one I'm in (I own several genies). Asher Perlman is still my favorite cartoonist/modern day Sisyphus."
- Bowen Yang
“Asher Perlman makes your favorite comic’s favorite comics.”
- Nikki Glaser
“Hilariously perceptive of life’s mundane tragedies. Asher articulates that voice in my head that is stressing over existential fears, social obligations and magicians, apparently. I feel seen and also ridiculed.”
- Jordan Klepper
"At once hilarious and plaintive, Asher’s brilliant cartoons fit every occasion. They pair beautifully with a bold Bordeaux, a crackling fireplace, and a deep sense of existential satisfaction. But they are just as enjoyable in a dim parking lot with a gas station hot dog and all of the haunting regret of your life choices. A triumph."
- Ed Helms
“Asher Perlman belongs to the great American Tradition of the Deadpan: not only the classic cartoonists like Thurber and George(s) Price and Booth, but Buster Keaton and (stay with me) They Might Be Giants. The world is a big, weird place and it takes a special talent to manage it for us. Relax: Asher’s got this.”
- Michael McKean
"Asher Perlman cartoons are hilarious, fresh, and brilliant. He works with familiar cartoon genres (doctors, courtrooms, cocktail parties, death, etc.) and invents many of his own. I am in awe."
- Roz Chast
So, those are the blurbs. If you still need further convincing: I know where you live!
Okay, hopefully one of those tactics worked and you’re itching to place your pre-order. If so, click here. Or, if you want an autographed copy (and live in the US), there is a limited number available here.
Finally, I’m having a release party on 9/5 at The Bell House in Brooklyn with some friends and I’d love to see you there. There will be door prizes! I made sunglasses!
Okay, that’s enough from me. The theme for this week’s ToonStack is “Writing a Book” and some of my all-time favorite cartoonists contributed. Please enjoy.
I love you all.
The lesson here is: Never look up.
Will Santino
Tom Toro
A lifetime of stories in a few simple lines.
This might have been funnier in my head.
They say, if you don't know what to write about, "Write what you know." Which is problematic when all you've known for the past three years is hunching over a drawing board like Gollum with carpal tunnel, illustrating books and flinging them into the void hoping someone might accidentally click "Buy It Now" while scrolling on the toilet. Writing about writing is like dancing about architecture, as the saying goes. (Though after three years of rejection, interpretive dance might be more lucrative.)
Either way, I'd really like you to buy my new book so that I can afford to sit down and write another book. About writing. (Books.)
The late, great British comedian, Peter Cook was once at a cocktail party where he met a man who told him "I'm writing a book." Without missing a beat, Cook replied "Really? Neither am I." Cook knew that if he pursued the conversation, eventually he'd find out that there was no book, so he skipped over the middle and went straight to the end.
It's a great way to handle cocktail party conversations, often a good way to read a book, but a terrible way to approach life. Cook, for example, when he got to the end of his life, died. Not exactly a happy ending! It's best not to skip ahead, even if it feels like the suspense is killing you, because the death will kill you much less metaphorically. But at least Peter Cook stayed true to his word, proudly dying without having ever written a book.
Sadly, I've never been able to match his great achievement. I gave in to temptation and wrote "INKED: Cartoons, Confessions, Rejected Ideas and Secret Sketches" Sorry, but I'm only flesh and blood, and complimentary bread rolls. I guess I just wanted to see my name on a spine somewhere, and the tattoo on Academy award-winning actress Cher's spine doesn't count (we had a brief fling, and nobody regrets it more than I do, except for her).
I know I can never undo what's been done, but I like to think I've learned from my mistakes, and when I write my next book, I won't. Look for it soon!
The visual gag here is that more than 2 people showed up for the unpopular writer's book signing.
Let me guess: you had the exact same idea for a cartoon like ten years ago? Well, get over it. It’s been ten years and I don’t go through your sketchbook anymore, or read your diary or even go through your garbage very often.
I will [TK] this blurb when I finally [TK] what "TK" stands for. This is what it stands for: [TK]. This is where it comes from: [TK] This is why writers use it: [TK].
Just like Asher, I too, am desperate for you to buy my book. And come to my book tour. And love me, in general.
I don’t really want to meet the author; that’s a little intense and awkward. “Um, your magnum opus is good :/.” I’d rather meet the person with the most upvoted comment that concisely destroys a writer’s life work while simultaneously making me think that they are funnier and cooler.
Nothing says creative work like lugging around hundreds of tiny scraps of half-baked ideas for years. Fill your phone with them! Stuff them in shoe boxes! Write them in the margins of your journal! There's no wrong way to do it so long as you carry them AND an ever-present, weighty feeling that sometime you will MAYBE NEED ONE OF THEM and it will be key to creating the masterpiece that will last for all time that only you were born to create.
I am currently working on a graphic novel and faithfully following this time-honoured method of lugging around scraps of thoughts in the pursuit of supposed greatness. If you're pursuing greatness in your art this year, check out my new program - the Kitchen Sink Atelier. It might help you out.
But wait, there’s more!
Watch Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell & Jason Chatfield live drawing at noon tomorrow right here on Substack. Add to your Calendar now.
In addition to his new book, Asher has a substack: asherperlman.substack.com
Preorder Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell’s new book here.
Amy Kurzweil’s graphic memoir, Artificial: A Love Story, was named a best book of 2023 by The New Yorker, NPR, and Kirkus! She also teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!
Check out Joe Dator’s books and prints at joedator.com/buy
Tom Toro’s cartoon is among the hundreds in his debut cartoon collection, And to Think We Started as a Book Club..., coming out this fall! He also publishes brand-new cartoons every week on his Substack Undiscovered Masterpieces.
Jason Chatfield has a new cartoon book about Dogs which is out now! And Subscribe to Jason’s regular weekly Substack at NewYorkCartoons.com
Take your art seriously - join the Kitchen Table Atelier, Kendra's new ongoing workshop to support you being a bad-ass artist.
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My unbiased take: this is the best ToonStack yet!